Internal-combustion engine



2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INvENTuR Bf M;1... .-4

ATTURNEY June 26, 1951 F. J. FETTE INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINE Filed June 6, 1946 June 26, 1951 F. J. FETTEv INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINE .2 sheets-sheet 2 Filed June 6, 1946 INVENTDR rardffmne B It v u v 7 w ATTDRNEY Patented June 26, `1951 INTERNAL-COMBUS-IIGN ENGINE Frank J Fette, Tampa, Fla.; Joseph F. Fette executor of said. Frank J.. Fette, deceased Application June 6, 1946, Serial No. 674,880

3 Claims. 1

This invention relates to internal combustion engines of the two-cycle, Diesel typeA and particularly of that character in which the force of a piston is exerted upon an endless cam track to convert reeiprocation of the piston into rotary movement of a shaft.

A primary object of the invention is the provision of a light motor, of simple and rigid construction, capable of high speed and o-ne in which the forces are counterbalanced to minimize vibration.

In the drawings illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention, Figure 1V is a side elevation of the engine; Fig. 2 is a vertical central section with parts in elevation; Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view to show the position of the cams at corresponding positions of the pistons; Fig. 4 is a front elevation ofthe engine with part of the casing and of the central webs brokenaway and Fig. 5 is a central horizontal section in the plane indicated by the line V--V of Fig. 4.

Upon base members I and 2, are secured upright webs 3 and 4 respectively. A front casing member 5 is shown at the left in Fig. 4' and at the top of Fig. 2 as having a flange 6, With a co-rresponding bottom flange l, and in Fig. 5 a left side flange 8, all secured to the web member 3 as by bolts 9. The same casing member 5 has a top flange IB, a bottom flangev II`, and. a side flange I2 secured to the web member 4 by bolts I3. The space between the webs 3v and 4 is indicated at I4 at the top and bottom of Fig. 4.

A rear casing member I5'has flanges I6 and I1 seen in Fig. 2 and flange I8A seen in Fig. 5 corresponding to the anges 6, l, and 8 respectively, of the front casing member and held to the web 3 by the same bolts 9.. The` member I5 hasa central hub i9; It also has anges 2l!V and 2| `seen in Fig. l and flange 22 seen in Fig. 1, corresponding to the flanges IB, II, and IZreSpectively of the front casing member 5 and. secured to the web 4 by the same bolts I3.

The central confronting edges of the webs 3 and 4 are cut out on circular arcs to receive a cylindrical water jacket 23 which may advantageously be fabricated from steel tubing pierced on opposite sides for a transverse tubular member 24 forming a piston chamber. The top of the member 24 is preferably welded to the jacket 23', but the bottom will have a packing gland of which the outer member 25 will be welded to the jacket and the inner member 26 will have-a threaded engagement in the member 25 to perm-it sliding when the tube 24 expands as the engineis run.

The rear end of the jacket 23 is closedby a plate 2.1 having .a central, outwardly-opening socket 28 for a bearing for the end of the shaft 29'. The central hub portion I9 of the casing member I5 contains a roller bearing for the shaft 29.

Mounted for reciprocation within the chamber 24:V are two pistons 30 each having a stem 3l projecting from the end of the chamber into a space I4 between the webs 3 and 4 and each stem having lateral pairs of flanges 32 engaging'opposite faces of a web 3 or 4 whereby the outer ends of the stems 3| are guided by the webs to move in a straight line with a minimum of side thrust on the walls of the cylinder, and to prevent a tendency to rotate because of opposing pressures ofthe two cams engaged by the rollers mounted on thestems.

Keyed to the shaft 29 is a dished carriermember 33 to the face of which is secured a disk 34 having on the surface remote from the carrier member, a substantially elliptical cam 35. A roller bearing 36 is shown as interposed between the cam disk and the outer surface of the jacket 23.

A corresponding disk member 3l having the inwardly extending cam 38 of the same shape and size as cam 35, is mounted for rotation` on the outer surface ofthe other end of the cylinder 23.

The cam disk 34 has secured thereto a ring gear 39 and cam disk 3l has a similar gear 40. Between these two confronting gears on the cam disks, are interposed four smaller bevel gears 4I, 42, 43, and 44, of which the idler gear 4I is seen at the left in Figs. 4 and 5 and a fan-drive gear is seen at the right in the same figures. A second idler gear 43 is indicated by broken lines at the upper right in Fig. 4 and a second fandrive gear 44 is indicatedin 'broken lines at the upper left.

As best' seen in Fig. 2, the stems 3l of the piistons 30 are each provided on opposite sides with rollers 45 engaging the inner surface of a cam 35 or 38 and with rollers 46, engaging the outer surface of one of the cams. In Fig. 4, the cam 33 is shown in section, being on the same side of the webs 3 and 4 as the observer, the plane of section being that indicated by the broken line IV-IV of Fig. 2, between the right-hand surface of the cam disk 3l and the adjacent ends of the rollers 45 and 4&5.

In the cam position of Fig. 4, the major axes of both cams are vertical and the engagement of the rollers 45 -with the inside of the vcams preventsv any further outward movement of the pistons 3U. away yfrom eachl other in thev cylinder u24.

In the broken line position of the cams in Fig. 4 with their major axes horizontal, the pistons are at their inner limits of their strokes and the engagement of rollers 46 with the outer surfaces of the cams would prevent further inward movement even if the air between the ends of the two pistons were not compressed, as of course it always is in normal operation. Usually, the rollers 46 may be entirely out of contact with the cam as will appear later.

A ilywheel 41 on the shaft 29 may be used to start the rotation of the shaft and of the member 33 keyed thereon, thus causing rotation of the cam disk 34 and of the gear 39 attached thereto. The gears 4l, 42, 43, and 44 in mesh with the gear 39 will start the gear 49 to rotating in the opposite direction to that of gear 39, carrying with it the cam disk 31 and the cam 38. The two cams moving in opposite directions will push inward on the rollers 45 and cause the two pistons to move toward each other, compressing the air in the chamber between them until they reach the innermost limit of the compression stroke with a certain clearance between them.

At this central point of the chamber 24, always unobstructed by the pistons, an injection nozzle 48 is secured within the chamber wall, supplied by a tube 49 leading from a pump 59 actuated by a rotary cam 5I controlled by a lgovernor 52, which may be of the form fully disclosed in my Patent No. 2,149,591, issued March 7, 1939.

The pump and cam are set to cause the injection of liquid fuel into the chamber at the moment of greatest compression of air between the two pistons, the heat of compression being su'- cient to ignite the fuel. The momentum of the ilywheel carries the cams past the dead centers.

at the end of the compression stroke at which time lthe major axes are horizontal and the cams immediately begin to recede from the pistons. If no injection of fuel has occurred and no combustion, the cams will act upon the rollers 46 to draw the pistons outward until they reach the outer limit of movement, ready for the next inward movement of compression. 1f fuel has ignited, the force of expansion of the hot gases thrusts the rollers 45 against the inclined walls of the cams to cause their rotation and the continued rotation of the shaft and flywheel. The thrust will be equal against both cams.

Figure 3 is a diagram intended to show the relative positions of the camsl and pistons at different degrees of rotation of the ilywheel, To avoid unnecessary complexity, the vertical fullline position of the cam 38 shown in Fig. 4 and the broken-line horizontal position have both been omitted from Fig. 3.

The narrowest pair of rectangles formed by long dashes at a, a, in Fig. 3, indicate the innermost position of the pistons at their closest approach to each other, with cams then in the dashline position of Fig. 4. These rectangles have their tops connected by long-dash stems 31a with the circles 45a representing the rollers 45. The next rectangles at b, b, indicated by dashes separated by two dots and connected by similar lines 31h to circles 45h show the small outward movement of the pistons while the cam disks each rotate through ten degrees from the horizontal to the dash-double-dot positions 35h and 38h. The dash-dot rectangles at c, c, connected by stems 3Ic with rollers 45c represent a total outward movement of the pistons through forty-five degrees of'rotation of the cams from the horizontal to the positions at 35e and 38e. This is not yet half of the longitudinal piston stroke which will continue outward during the next forty-:tiveY degrees of rotation of the cams to the short-dash positions of the pistons at d, d. This is of course, the vertical position of the cams in Fig. 4.

The Wall of the chamber 24 has formed therein a plurality of elongated perforations 53 serving as exhaust ports forv the gases of combustion. A member 54 surrounding the cylinder 24 and welded thereto, provides a passage to receive the exhaust from the ports 53, the outer end of the member 54 being shown as having a flange 55 for attachment to the casing member 5. One end Vof an outer exhaust channel member 56 is secured as by a flange 51 to the casing 5 in line Y with the member 54 and the other end is secured to a fan casing 58 as by a flange 59. Within the casing 58, a fan 69 is driven by the shaft of the gear 42.

The cylinder 24 has a second set of ports at 6| surrounded by a member 62 having a passage therein for scavenging air. The outer end of the member 62 has a flange 63 for attachment to the casing member 5 in alinement with the outer member 64 leading to the casing 65, within which is a fanV (not shown) the arrangement being substantially identical with the exhaust passage 56 and fan 60 just described, and the fan being driven by the gear 44.

The lower piston 30 begins to uncover the ports in Fig. 2 at about sixty degrees of rotation of the cams from the innermost position a of Fig. 3 and the escape of the gases is facilitated by the suction set up by the fan as soon as the ports open. At about seventy-ve degrees of rotation, the scavenging air ports 6I begin to be uncovered and remain open for about thirty degrees of rotation of the cams, during which period, the fan in the casing 65 acts as a blower to drive air after the escaping combustion gases for complete scavenging of the cylinder.

The water jacket 23 has baiiles 66 welded longitudinally of the walls on opposite sides above and below the central portion of the cylinder 24. Cooling water is delivered by pipes 61, 68, and 69 to the space between the baffles and ows into the upper and lower cavities around the cylinder to escape through the pipes 10 and 1l.

The casing formed between the members 5 and I5 may hold a sufficient quantity of oil in its lower portion for proper and eicient lubrication of the cams, the gears, and the bearings of all the rotating members and of the piston rings. An inlet for oil is closed by the plug 12 at the top of the casing and a drain plug 13 is seen at the bottom in Fig. 4. Ready access to the nozzle 48 is provided by a tube 14 of a size to admit a socket Wrench.

AIhe many advantages of the structure herein illustrated and described Will-be evident to those skilled in the art. Many parts can be made of tubing and of sheet metal by simple welding methods while other parts can be made as light alloy castings. 4 V

The pistons are guided in straight line movement without side thrusts upon the cylinder walls and the pressure exerted by and upon the cams is equal on both sides of the piston. Two power strokes occur in each revolution of the flywheel, making high speed possible with well balanced forces because of the opposite motion of piston against piston and of the oppositely rotating disks.'

I claim:

1. An internal combustion engine comprising separable casing members, a cylindrical water jacket mounted transversely of the casing and having means for circulating water therethrough, a power cylinder secured Within the water jacket and set transversely thereof. cam members journalled for rotation upon the exterior of the jacket on opposite sides of the power cylinder, gears on each cam member, intermediate gears mounted for rotation on the casing and engaging the gears on the cam members to cause them to rotate in opposite directions, a cam upon each of the cam members on the sides adjacent to the power cylinder, two pistons reciprocating oppositely within the power cylinder, each piston having means bearing upon the internal surfaces of both cams to cause them to rotate upon outward movement of the pistons, means to force fuel into the space between the pistons, intake and outlet ports formed Within the walls of the power cylinder and uncovered yby the pistons near the ends of their outward strokes, and fans driven by the gears to cause scavenging flow of air through the cylinder when the ports are open.

2. A power cylinder having two pistons reciprocating oppcsitely therein, the cylinder having inlet and exhaust ports uncovered by the pistons near their points of greatest distance from each other. means for forcing fuel into the power cylinder between the pistons near their points of closest approach to each other, a cylindrical water jacket secured upon and surrounding the power cylinder over the portion between the intake and exhaust ports, the axis of the water jacket being at substantially right angles to that of the power cylinder, the outer surface of the water jacket being formed at each end as a bearing, oppositely facing cam members being mounted for rotation upon the jacket bearings and having a cam symmetrical with respect to the axis of rotation formed on each of the two confronting faces of the cam members, each piston having cam-engaging means thereon in contact with both cams, gears upon the cam members, intermediate gears engaged therewith to cause the cams to rotate in opposite directions, and means actuated by the intermediate gears to cause movement of air through the power cylinder while the ports are open to cause scavenging of the products of combustion.

3. An internal combustion engine having a fixed power cylinder provided with intake and exhaust ports, two pistons reciprocating oppositely Within said cylinder and adapted to uncover said ports near their points of greatest distance from each other, means for introducing fuel into the power cylinder between the pistons, a cylindrical supporting member formed as a hollow chamber surrounding the central portion of the casing and having its exterior surface provided at each side of the power cylinder with a bearing, a cam member on each of said bearings mounted for rotation on an axis at right angles to the axis of the cylinder, a cam on each of said cam members, means on each of said pistons engaging both of the cams to cause them to rotate in opposite directions, a gear on each of the confronting faces of the cam members, intermediate gears mounted for rotation on axes at right angles to the axis of rotation of the cam members and engaged on their opposite sides by the gears on the cam members, and means driven by the intermediate gears to cause movement of air through the cylinder while the ports are open to scavenge the products of combustion :from the cylinder.

FRANK J FETTE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 871,881 Montan Nov. 26, 1907 1,252,757 Williams Jan. 8, 1918 1,603,969 Michel Oct.` 19, 1926 1,853,563 Hungerford et al. Apr. 12, 1932 2,038,024 Craske Apr. 21, 1936 2,080,846 Alfaro May 18, 1937 2,350,377 Tjaarda June 6, 1944 

